


Grand Celebrations, Tiny Hope

by Missy



Category: Midsommar (2019)
Genre: Blood Sacrifices, F/M, Mild Injury, Pregnancy, Rituals, Romance, Traditions, Twisted love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28174548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: Dani is pregnant - and thus subjected to the rituals and ways Hårga deals with pregnancy.
Relationships: Dani Ardor/Pelle (Midsommar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26
Collections: Holiday Horror 2020





	Grand Celebrations, Tiny Hope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reeby10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/gifts).



When Dani realized she was pregnant, she was actually thrilled about it. This would make up for everything that happened with Terri – the loss she had suffered would be washed off of the slate with new life, like blood after a slaughter.

Pelle had cried. His whole body had bubbled with joy as he held her and rested his face against her belly. “A miracle,” he said. “Our miracle! I must tell the others!”

Dani didn’t want the others to know yet, to be honest. It was winter, the snow was thick on the ground, and she just wanted to wait everything out as the baby grew. Everything seemed a dangerous notion at the moment – walking between the communal kitchens and their little hut, going to worship, even visiting with the other women in the bath house. She felt as if she were being pushed out of the choices she’d made about her own body.

But she couldn’t quell Pelle’s enthusiasm, and soon he was running about letting the whole world in on their mini miracle. The women of the commune had studied her face closely before bursting into happy chatter, rubbing their bellies, as if they too were pregnant. 

Dani just wanted to be alone for a little while. Pelle respected that at last, to some degree, when she fell asleep in the middle of worship one week.

“All right,” he said. “Rest, and we will prepare for the insalata,” he said.

“You’re making me a salad?” she asked, half-asleep.

His laugh was soft and gentle and sweet. “No, darling. We’re going to prepare a special celebration. When new life comes to Harga, we gather to celebrate with a feast and a dance, and then there is a sacrifice of thanks made.”

Dani knew both why new life in Harga was such a big deal and why they did yearn for fresh infusions of new blood there – after all, she knew the other reason why they tempted vacationers into their open, warm arms.  


“Just as long as you don’t drug me,” she muttered, and he gave her a piercing look. Had she overstepped her bounds? Of course she’d come to understand the fake ecstasy she’d experienced that day when she became May Queen was drug-induced. 

But he ignored the moment, and wrapped himself happily around her – shielding her from all of the bad around them, even if that meant bleaching out some of the good.

***

A few months later – when her stomach stopped jumping at every single noise, when her morning sickness began to subside – Pelle woke her and helped her wash and dress.

“It’s time,” he said with great excitement. “Time for the insalata!”

She stumbled out into the bright sunlight – white snow, bright light – it seemed more dazzling and sense-numbing than anything she’d dealt with during her long summer here. The women of Harga had made a circle in the snow, and Pelle playfully pushed Dani toward the center. 

“Queen of May,” the eldest woman among them said. “Your womb is fruitful. This requires a sacrifice of blood to ensure the birth of the child.”

Dani felt a sickening stroke of horror. “Why?”

The woman smiled that dead-eyed grin that Dani had only ever seen in Harga and at airports when she was confronted by the odd Hare Krishna. “You are fruitful. Therefore you must drink the blood of one who is not. The strong consume the weak, and the weak ascend to a new plane…”

Dani’s eyes scanned the women in the group, and only one of the gathered was childless – not pregnant, not having produced for Harga, even among the closely-related men there. She locked gazes with Maja and, again, she felt a sickening thud of disgust zing through her body. Maja had not produced a child from her encounter with Christian; she had not produced a child at all. 

The thought flickered through Dani’s mind – _slitting Maja’s throat, drinking her blood, killing her literally, as Maja had killed Dani’s heart, Dani’s love for Christian…_

She shook off the thought, pushed it away. When she looked up, the disgust in the eyes of the women around her – for though they had synchronicity, sympathy, for Dani, Maja had been born here and was of them – surprised her. The very idea immediately made her switch her her tack. “Bring her to me.”

They did, seeming pleased with her choice. She looked into Maja's eyes - her terrified white eyes - and leaned forward. 

Her bite was quick and simple - and not enough to cut Maja's jugular. The hot salt of its blood barely touched her tongue.

After, she sat in the snow and tried to breathe around the anxious lump in her throat. She’d passed the latest test, which was something close to a miracle.

“How clever you are - making the sacrifice but saving Maja. She will be a good helper, to look after our son." Silence, and he wrapped his arms around her body. "Look up, Dani,” said Pelle from beside her. “It’s the tradition,” he explained. The women hummed and walked through the snow, the bloody mess the goat had left behind- carrying bulbs toward the garden bed, and carefully they planted them in the frozen ground, their crimson cloaks spots of blood against the endless canvas of milky-white snow. She saw the place where Maja sat, holding her neck, trembling and sitting in the snow. Dani lifted her chin in Maja's direction. Then she took a deep breath, stood up and tall.

She was the May Queen. Until the snows melted, it was her job to be strong for the baby and for the other women of Harga.


End file.
